Starlin Castro Finishes 5th In ROY Voting

Even when the Chicago Cubs are not playing, there still is plenty of reasons for Cubs fans to be upset. Today is no different, as the winners of the American League and National League Rookie of the Year awards were announced. While I did not expect Castro to finish first, I least thought we would certainly end up in the top 3. So, you can just imagine my disbelief once I saw the final voting percentages.

1. Buster Posey- There really is no question about Posey being the top rookie in the National League. Considering that he supplanted Bengie Molina as the Giants starting catcher, and led the Giants to the World Series , he was a no brainer. Posey, hit .305/.357/.505 with the Giants this year, while driving in 67 runs.
2. Jason Heyward- Once again, I have no problems with Heyward finishing in second place. The biggest reason, is because that Heyward actually was productive for the entire season for the Atlanta Braves. Heyward, finished the year hitting .277/.393/.456 with 18 home runs and 83 RBI’s.
3. Jaime Garcia- This is where I start to question whether or not the Writers Association got the voting process correct. while, I always think the hardest position to play in as a rookie is pitcher, I do not think Garcia should have finished third in voting. Garcia consummated a 13-8 record with an ERA of 2.70 in 28 starts with the Cardinals this season. Those are outstanding numbers for pitcher to have as a rookie, but, Starlin Castro brought more value to the Cubs than Garcia did to the Cardinals.
4. Gaby Sanchez- If you ask me, Sanchez was the rookie who was probably most overlooked. Part of it could be that he was playing in a small market with the Marlins, or the Marlins were never in the National Spotlight. But, that did not stop Sanchez from having a good rookie season, hitting .273/.341/.448 with 19 home runs and 72 runs batted in.
5. Starlin Castro, and Neil Walker- Walker finished with one second place vote, compared to Castro who received three third place votes. Both, wound with having 3 points overall. Not to take anything away from Walker, who had a very good rookie season hitting .292 with 12 homers, I still think that Castro was a better player than Walker was this year. Meanwhile, Castro finished the year hitting .300/.347/.408 with 39 extra base hits.  While Castro may not have had the power numbers that the other rookies had, he is an as good if not better than hitter than all of them. Granted, Castro may have received the low amount of votes because of his poor defense. But, they should keep in mind that Castro is only 20, and he definitely has shown flashes of being a good fielder.

I know that it is not a big deal or anything, I just feel that Castro deserved more attention than what he actually received in the Rookie of the Year voting.